


Peculiar

by Benway



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-10 23:22:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10449858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benway/pseuds/Benway
Summary: "L'enfer, c'est les autres" Jean-Paul Sartre. Translation "Hell is other people", in other words we are only what others perceive us to be."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in around 10 minutes at 12 at night so read at your own volition.

All Carmilla wanted was to sit underneath the rotting abandoned tree located in the middle of the campus and read a bit from Sein und Zeit. Instead, however, she was given an overly energetic, far too friendly for her own good, pint-sized brunette, blocking what little light needed to read her book, that was not shielded by the decrepit tree. Just as she was about to insult her way into getting her light back. She was cut off by the high voice off her intruder.

"What are you reading?" inquired the currently nameless stranger.

Carmilla raised her head to look at the girl, momentarily blinded by the sun. She took her time taking her invader into account. The girl truly was minuscule. Although if she were being fair she would have to admit there was only an inch or two separating them in height. She was dressed in one of those hideous Christmas sweaters (despite being four months away from the holiday), accompanied by a simple pair of jeans. What stood out most about her appearance even despite her sweater was her loud yellow converse. The Oxford Dictionary definition of strange is: "Unusual or surprising; difficult to understand or explain." She embodied three of the four at once. Unusual in her appearance, surprising in her attack, difficult to understand on every level (of course knowing, if one could even say knowing, someone for all of a minute does not give much time for understanding). However not difficult to explain: she was strange that should be explanation enough.

"Why are you wearing a Christmas sweater in the middle of August; especially on such hot day as this?" replied Carmilla.

"I asked a question first; I quite like my sweater, and who are you to question me when you're dressed in all black?" asked the girl in an indignant voice.

"Look cutie as much as I might love the face you're making you're blocking my light." replied Carmilla exacerbating the situation.

"Look you don't have to be such a jerk." said the stranger in a terse manner. "All I wanted to do was to get to know you, I just moved here and it's the first day of school, and I, you seemed like you would be a nice person, people that read to themselves in today's society are supposed to be nice right, could you at least point me in the direction of the office, all I wanted was to know what you were reading." replied the girl in a long winded dejected tone.

"Sein und Zeit." said Carmilla.

"What" uttered the girl.

"The book I'm reading it's Sein und Zeit by Martin Heidegger. Look I'll show you the way to the office if you promise to not faint from lack of oxygen." Carmilla said in a gentler tone.

"Thank you, by the way my name is Hollis, Laura Hollis ." replied Laura.

"Well James, the office is this way, and remember my deal, no fainting." said Carmilla.

The two girls went off together towards the direction of the office in a palpable silence. Once they had arrived Carmilla opened the door blasting the both of them with a chilling frost from the AC, leading the now named Laura inside.


	2. Chapter 2

Like every time Carmilla entered into the small austere room she was hit with a sense of dread that sunk down to her very core. The room despite having a highly innovative air conditioner was very much run down. Two of the three fluorescent lights flickered rapidly, the computers used by the receptionists had not been upgraded from where they were first got in what one must presume was the early 90s, the floor looked as though it had been torn up from one of those insane asylums that resided in a poorly directed horror film. The receptionists were not much better off themselves, there were two of them. One, a neurotic woman who one could presume never left her house other than to come to work and to buy groceries, who spent her free time quietly sitting in a corner of her house knitting sweaters just to waste away, as she wasted away with them. The other, a man who could make a drill sergeant cry. His steely gaze never left someone whilst they were in his presence, even with multiple people insight of him if they could look up and be greeted by his awesome gaze. However, despite the dreary atmosphere, this is not what Carmilla dreaded the most. No, what Carmilla dreaded most lay behind the pristine door that leads into a back room. The room despite sharing the same dwelling that housed the room she was currently in, was immaculate, sophisticated. Everything the receptionist area was, that room was the complete opposite. It was rather abstruse.

Carmilla was soon jerked out of her ruminations however by the shrill voice of the receptionist telling her to take a seat. She was then tugged into one of two of the dented chairs, that gave the impression they had never seen better times. Carmilla had the sense that the chairs were going to collapse in on themselves from the moment they took any weight upon them. Laura crinkled her nose complaining about a heavy smell of mildew, which was only amplified by the AC. 

“You never told me your name,” Laura commented.

“Carmilla.” was faintly uttered.

“Ok” huffed Laura exasperated, “Carmilla, what do you want to do after high school?”

“Does it matter”

“Of course it matters.” said Laura “It’s only the most important question. I want to be a journalist. I’m going to shine a light on the corruption that big business dwells in, expose how the careless actions that they participate in harmfully affect the impoverished, and make sure that they get punished for their misdeeds. I plan on getting a Pulitzer by the time I'm 25.” she finished rather perfunctorily, as though she has stated this a thousand times in a mirror.

“Alright Karl, just remember our deal, no fainting.” stated Carmilla “I haven’t put much thought into it, but I guess a philosopher.”

“Why a philosopher?”

Just as Carmilla was about to reply she was cut off by the sound of a door being open. Please, anything but that door. Anything but that door played over and over again like a mantra in Carmilla’s head. Her mantras were ill-fated. Of course, it was that door, this was her after all, and nothing ever went in her favour.

“Ah, Carmilla what are you doing here?”, inquired a woman dressed in a raven pantsuit, wearing the same stoic expression that Carmilla wore so often. “Well I suppose it doesn't quite matter, it must wait till later, I’m about to leave. And who are you?”, the woman adjusted her gaze to Laura.

Fettered by the woman's gaze, Laura replied in a nervous manner, “ah-Ah, Laura Hollis, I’m here to get my schedule, I just moved here from”, Laura was cut off by a paper being thrust at her. The woman behind the desk had, during this ordeal, gotten the necessary document for Laura. Having no social cues whatsoever the secretary had found now a perfect time to present the paperwork to the young girl.

Only when the secretary had returned to her perch, had laura noticed the disappearance of her inquisitor. With trepidation, sensing Carmilla's stiffness next to her, she asked, “Who was that?”

“What’s with you and questions?”, Carmilla replied coolly.

Warmly Laura replied, “You don’t have to answer” 

Carmilla found herself trying to resist a smile, faltering in her attempt, and soon after breaking into a grin that she found oddly satisfying. Laura, who she met only moments ago, was quickly starting to grow on her.

“Well cutie lets see that list off yours”, Carmilla proffered up a delicate hand, waiting expectantly. Laura handed over the slip of paper. Carmilla looked down at the slip of paper:

1.PHYSICS - MR. SIOPES  
2.GERMAN - MS. ESCOTT  
3.ALGEBRA II - MRS. MARTINEZ  
4.LITERATURE - MR. GINSBERG  
5\. EUROPEAN HISTORY - MR. KLEIN  
6\. JOURNALISM - MRS. LEE  
7\. DRAWING & PAINTING I - MS. CUNNINGHAM

Scanning over it, she noticed that the first five classes on Laura’s list where all shared with her. Secretly she was screaming with joy. Outwardly she confirmed, “ We share the first five together if you want I could walk you to your last two.” Carmilla held her breath waiting for her swift execution.

“I would love that!”, Laura exclaimed. Carmilla let out a joyous breath. Being allowed to spend more time with this girl, the same girl only moments ago she found irritating, was far and away her only concern. If it were up to her she would freeze time right now, just so Laura could ask her any question that floated into her mind, unchained by the world around them, unworried. But life as such was never picturesque, and just at that moment, the bell lets out its high-pitched scream, alerting the denizens of the grounds to head to their own personalised hell. Carmilla let out in a huff of annoyance. “Well, off to Mr. Siopes.”

Leaving behind them the gloomy office, they were met by a heavy rain. The weather had changed while they were in the office from a bright sunshine to a torrential downpour.

“We better run”, Carmilla advised, “it doesn't look like the rain's going to let up soon.”

“If you don't mind could we walk? I love the rain.”, Carmilla smiled and nodded, this girl was going to be the death of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this.
> 
> All comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated. Especially on my punctuation, I absolutely loath punctuation.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this.
> 
> All comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated. Especially on my punctuation, I absolutely loath punctuation.
> 
> I plan on making this a multi-chapter story, I have a vague idea of how I want this to go. I might try to switch the kind of format I use throughout the story. I'm thinking of writing a future chapter in a play format. So ya......


End file.
